March 2001

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Features

The Sciences

Making Sense of Taste

How do cells on the tongue register the sensations of sweet, salty, sour and bitter? Scientists are finding out and discovering how the brain interprets these signals as various tastes

By David V. Smith and Robert F. Margolskee

A Sharper View of the Stars

A new generation of optical interferometers is letting astronomers study stars in 100 times finer detail than is possible with the Hubble Space Telescope

By Arsen R. Hajian and J. Thomas Armstrong

Sculpting the Earth from Inside Out

Powerful motions deep inside the planet do not merely shove fragments of the rocky shell horizontally around the globe–they also lift and lower entire continents

By Michael Gurnis

If Humans Were Built to Last

PERSON DESIGNED FOR A HEALTHY OLD AGE might possess the features highlighted here, along with countless other external and internal adjustments.

By Bruce A. Carnes, Robert N. Butler and S. Jay Olshansky

Evolution: A Lizard's Tale

On some islands in the Caribbean, evolution seems to have taken the same turn-- over and over and over again

By Jonathan B. Losos

The Geography of Poverty and Wealth

Tropical climate and lack of access to sea rade have hurt the poorest nations. But new aid programs can point the way to prosperity

By Jeffrey D. Sachs, John L. Gallup and Andrew D. Mellinger

Departments

From the Editor

The Future of Human Evolution

Letters

The Mail

Recommended

Who Owns Your Body?

Anti Gravity

Sound Proof

50, 100 & 150 Years Ago

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago: Before Technical Outerwear, Canals on Mars and Open Sore

Wonders

The Needy Porcupine

In Brief

In Brief, March 2001

Data Points: March 2001

Profile

Fighting the Darkness in El Dorado

Mathematical Recreation

Easter is a Quasicrystal

Amateur Scientist

Geotropism, One Last Time

Science and the Citizen

Skin So Fixed

Out in the Cold

Pour Me Another

Volcanic Accomplice

Scotchgard Scotched

Trapped over a Chip

Music of the 'Spheres

Scratching an Old Theory

Copernican Counterrevolution

Sloppy Feeding

By the Numbers

Sprawling into the Third Millennium

Working Knowledge

Gotcha!

Connections

French Leave

Cyber View

To Protect and Self-Serve

Technology and Business

Plenty to Sniff At

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Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

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